Opinion of the European Central Bank of 16 November 2005 at the request of the Czech Statistical Officeon proposed amendments to the Act on the State statistical service and to the Act on Česká národní banka (CON/2005/46)

OPINION OF THE EUROPEAN CENTRAL BANK of 16 November 2005 at the request of the Czech Statistical Office on proposed amendments to the Act on the State statistical service and to the Act on Česká národní banka (CON/2005/46)

1. On 19 September 2005, the European Central Bank (ECB) received a request from Český statistický úřad (ČSÚ) (Czech Statistical Office) for an opinion on specific provisions of a draft law amending the Act No 89/1995 Coll., on the State statistical service, as amended, and other related laws (hereinafter the ‘draft law’) . The related laws amended by the draft law include the Act No 6/1993 Coll., on Česká národní banka, as amended (hereinafter the ‘ČNB Act’). The ECB’s comments are confined to the specific provisions of the draft law on which it has been consulted.

2. The ECB’s competence to deliver an opinion is based on the fourth indent of Article 2(1) of Council Decision 98/415/EC of 29 June 1998 on the consultation of the European Central Bank by national authorities regarding draft legislative provisions , as the draft law relates to the collection of statistical information. In accordance with the first sentence of Article 17.5 of the Rules of Procedure of the European Central Bank, the Governing Council has adopted this opinion.

3. The main purpose of the draft law is to amend the current legal framework for statistical registers maintained by ČSÚ, in order to gradually reduce reliance on annual statistical surveys by using statistical data obtained from other State authorities. In particular, the draft law amends the Act on the State statistical service No 89/1995 Coll., as amended (hereinafter the ‘Act’) and inserts a new reciprocal provision into the ČNB Act to permit the sharing of individual data between Česká národní banka (ČNB) and ČSÚ . Moreover, under new Article 17(1)(f) of the Act, ČSÚ is required to transfer confidential data to other legal entities for research purposes in accordance with Community law .

4. The ECB welcomes the proposed amendments to the Act and to the ČNB Act, which will enable individual statistical data to be exchanged between ČNB and ČSÚ for statistical purposes. As this extended data-sharing is meant to prevent duplication in the collection of statistical data, it is expected that the proposed amendments will reduce the survey burden on the Czech reporting population. At the same time, they may further enhance the quality of the statistics concerned.

5. This opinion will be published on the ECB’s website. Done at Frankfurt am Main, 16 November 2005. [signed] The President of the ECB Jean-Claude TRICHET